The truth we choose to ignore!

Fab artwork by Allan Cavanagh of Caricatures-Ireland.com

Forget about speaking truth to power. It’s time for power to speak truth to people.

The simple truth we all know.

The truth an ever-increasing number of us choose to ignore.
The truth we trade for fear and hate, because for some that’s easier.

When will a political party refuse to seek votes through fear?
When will a political party refuse to slander and libel strangers?
When will a political party speak the truth to us?

Where is the party of hope?
Where is the party of compassion?
Where is the party which created the welfare state?
Where is the party that protected workers within Trade Unions? Where is the party which created our magnificent National Health Service?

Void of vision and courage, so-called ‘Left of Centre’ political parties appease the Far Right rather than oppose it.

Starmer’s Labour Party panders to the Right because it feels the only way to defeat hatred and bigotry is to swallow and spit some. It has lost its soul, lost itself, lost direction and Keir’s cowardice breaks my heart.

When will a political leader explain that what is happening is a massive human migration, driven by climate change?

When will a political leader explain that this is not going to go away; it is not going to get smaller; it’s only going to expand?

When will a political leader explain that these people are fleeing famine? They are fleeing war zones and they need help.

Show me one country in the world which has not sent people abroad to earn money and send it back home: such a place does not exist, and yet we turn our back on refugees, both economic and those seeking life-saving asylum.

When will a political leader speak out and declare what we already know: that no western democracy can succeed without the help of an underpaid, unprotected and often unwelcome migrant labour force?

When will a political leader speak out and say we need these people to do the disgusting jobs that our people will not do? We need these people to pick our crops, to harvest our yields, to wash our cars and dishes, to babysit our children and wipe our grandmothers’ backsides.

We need these people as much as they need us, because we are these people. We need to stop demonising immigrants, because who the hell are we? We are nothing but a bunch of immigrants as well.

Yes we are. Originally we all came from somewhere else. I am certainly an immigrant, because my great grandfather came to England from Germany, and I myself have lived in England, Australia, USA and Ireland, but I was born in London. This is the way of the world. This is the way we are, and it is a good way.

This way we mix our flavours, our art, our languages, our music and songs. We share our sadness and our stories. This is the truth of the melting pot. It does not mean that a country will lose its core culture. Italians will always be Italian. The French will be fantastically French, and you Irish will stay Irish.

Yet our culture can grow. Immigrants are not going to inhibit that, but they will contribute riches to it.

People say Ireland is full. As an Englishman who’s lived here almost 35 years, I say to them: “Slag me off by telling me there used to be over eight million people living here, before the English created your horrific famine, or you can tell me that Ireland is full, but you cannot do both."

Not both. No no you can’t, because if there used to be over 8 million here until the famine, how can the country possibly be full at five and a half million, especially when so many are now focused around the cities?

I have been to densely populated countries. I have travelled through Java. Let me tell you, emphatically and categorically: Ireland is absolutely blatantly not full. What’s missing is sufficient resources applied to social and public services, that can support an expanding population.

We do not need to hate other people simply because we don’t have enough GPs, nurses, teachers, surgeons and dentists. Instead of wasting money and energy making everybody terrified of immigrants, we should be demanding taxation and military spending be diverted so that we can pay GPs, nurses, teachers, surgeons and dentists.

We need to aspire to a nation in which every family can feel safe; where every individual, every child, every Elder can feel safe in their homes, regardless of where they were born.

That’s what we need.
That’s what we need right now.

We need politicians with vision, with courage, who do not appeal to fear, but choose to strive for hope and friendship; politicians who are driven by compassion and an understanding that the best way to get elected is to promise a brighter future, not a future where peoples’ fears are aflame, where hope is diluted by ignorant immigration hype.

We need a brave visionary of a politician. Every country does, right now, to speak out and tell the truth, the huge truth that we are witnessing a human migration the like of which we have seen repeated over and over again, throughout our human history.

No immigration policy will stop what is happening, as the Sahara moves north into Southern Europe, as sea levels rise, as fossil fuels run out, more and more people will be forced to share a smaller and smaller area that is safe to live in, a tiny area that is able to produce food, and we will all need to respect each other in that area.

It must be safe for us all to survive in.

We must appreciate each other.
We must understand that we are all equal in our right to be alive and live in a safe home.

A wise man once told me that if you go to bed with a full belly in a warm house, and nobody that you love will be taken in the night, you have nothing to fear.

If we set our sights as low as that then surely we can offer a welcome and safety for all.



©Charlie Adley
09.11.2025